Lindon stood and moved to the center of the room. The tall windows that took up most of the wall were behind him, showing the skies over Sacred Valley. Yerin sat on the couch, Ziel stood behind it, and Orthos and Little Blue waited on the table.

A tide that Yerin was sure she’d soon join. Her Blood Shadow, the parasite that had infested her as a girl, was struggling to take over. To heed the song of the Phoenix and break free. It was taking all of her mind and spirit, all of her willpower, to restrain it. Lindon leaned over her, his face soft with concern. He told her to fight. Told her he

the bulk of the Investiture that made up the powers of Dominion and Devotion is trapped on the Cognitive Realm.

Lindon’s right arm blazed with overwhelming, ravenous hunger. It writhed like a bag of snakes, as though every muscle in it had come to life separately. And the scripted cloth Malice had used to seal the limb finally unraveled. The desire to steal, to devour, to take everything hit Lindon in a wave. Above and behind him, reality twisted as an Icon